Just a (not-as-) minor (-as-I-first-thought) modification to monster stat blocks and advancement.

Instead of advancement as gaining hit dice until the creature eventually increases in size, advancement should be gaining hit dice until a creature advances to an advanced base creature that's essentially the same thing, but an older, more powerful, or more experienced version (eg: small elemental -> medium elemental -> etc., or ogre -> skullcrusher ogre, or animal -> dire animal). This would require stat blocks for the advanced size category creatures that already exist, so it's not as small a change as I first though, but on the plus side it would make it easier on DMs, having more premade stat blocks to choose from for various level ranges. Another MAJOR advantage of this is that that silly size advancement stat boost table in the MM can be thrown out (along with the confusion it brings in regards to non-advancement size changing).

Elite template, Diablo style.Note: I'm going to be using the term "level" here a lot. It's not HD, but probably will be based on CR instead, or used in a variant where all the monsters are rebalanced to have HD ~equal to their CRs.

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+2 HD+2 Natural armorHardness based on the (improved) HD: ranges from 2 at lower levels up to 20 or 30 by level 20.Enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls (similar to Greater Magic Weapon)Resistance bonus to all saves (as above, but for saves and its resistance)+2 to all ability scoresOne or more special abilities from the list below. Starts at 1 ability, increases at higher levels up to 4 some time shortly after level 20. Save DCs are 10 + 1/2 level + ability modifier, Con-based for Ex abilities and Cha-based for Su abilities.

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Mortar (Ex): As a swift action, make a ranged attack as if using a grenade-like weapon (no range increment), targeting an intersection within medium range (100 ft + 10 ft./level) but at least 60 feet away from you. Creatures within a 5' radius of the explosion take 1d6 fire damage per level, Reflex half. In addition, you gain a +2 deflection bonus to AC against ranged attacks.

Nightmarish (Su): 1/round as a free action after making a damaging melee attack, all opponents damaged by the attack must make a Will save or be frightened for 1 round, then shaken for 1d4 rounds afterwards. Creatures that succeed on the save are still shaken for 1 round. This is a mind-affecting fear effect. In addition, you gain a +4 bonus on all saves against fear effects.

Waller (Su): You can cast wall of stone as a swift action once per round, except that it has a duration of 1d4 rounds instead of instantaneous. In addition, your hardness increases by 2.

Knockback (Ex): 1/round as a free action after making a damaging melee attack, all opponents damaged by the attack must make a Fort save or be pushed directly away from you 4d6x5 feet, landing prone. Creatures that hit a solid object stop their movement there, but take an additional 1d6/3 levels damage. This forced movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal, except from you. In addition, you gain stability (as the Dwarf racial trait).

Vortex (Su): Once per round as a swift action, you can pull a distant opponent towards you. A target within medium range (100 ft + 10 ft/level) must make a Reflex save or be forcibly moved directly towards you, stopping adjacent to your space. Creatures that hit a solid object stop their movement there. This forced movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal, except from you. In addition, (NYI: something small but appropriate).

Teleporter (Su): Once per round as a swift action, you can teleport to any space within line of sight and within medium range (100 ft + 10 ft/level), as per the greater teleport spell. If you have not used this ability since the beginning of your previous turn, and it is the first action you take during your turn, you can take the remainder of your actions, as normal. Otherwise, your remaining actions are lost after teleporting, as per the dimension door spell. In addition, you gain a +4 bonus on saves against teleportation spells and effects.

Tremorsight: Tremorsense meets Blindsight. You can "see" everything you'd be able to detect with tremorsense.Mindsense: What the current Mindsight feat does (except not necessarily based on your telepathy range, though most sources would be).Mindsight: See Mindsense (above) + Blindsight.Odorsense: Souped up Scent, possibly with a larger range, that also functions as Blindsense out to the whole distance (instead of only within 5 feet).Odorsight: Odorsense with Blindsight.Touchsense: Telekinetic force lets you feel your surroundings, but not very well. Like blindsense, but reaches into the ethereal plane and detects incorporeal creatures and objects just fine. Not sound-based, so silence/deafness does nothing, but Force immunity prevents detection.Touchsight: Like Touchsense above, but with Blindsight instead of -sense. Not quite the same as the power by the same name.Magnetism: Like Scent, but with magnetic materials only. Also, you always know magnetic north.Magnetsense: Magnetism with Odorsense instead of Scent.Magnetsight: Magnetism with Odorsight instead of Scent.Spellsense: Like Blindsense, but only detects magical auras or creatures/objects with them. Also lets you determine properties of auras like Detect Magic.Spellsight: Spellsense + Blindsight. Aura reading is as per Arcane Sight. (Or was it Greater Arcane Sight? I need to check their differences.)

Benefit: The caster may opt to cast a slower version of a spell to give it additional power. A Swift spell can be cast as a Move action to gain +1 to its caster level, as a Standard to gain +2, and a full round to gain +4. A Standard action spell may be cast as a full round action to gain +2 to its caster level. For this purpose, casting a full round spell means it takes effect during the turn it is cast.

Tomb of Battle: The Book of Dead WarriorsAn undeath-focused set of martial adept things. ToB meets Libris Mortis meets a common typo.

Note to self: Read Libris Mortis and reread ToB before going too much further with this.

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Death Knight: Undeath-focused base class (that may draw some inspiration from WoW's Death Knight). Martial adept that takes on some undead traits. The Dread Necromancer of ToB. More mystical than the Warblade and Crusader, a bit less than the Swordsage.

Deadly Touch (Su): Gain a touch attack that deals 1d8+Cha damage as negative energy. Does not damage undead, instead healing them for 1 hp.- 12th: Also deals 1 Con damage to living opponents. Will negates the Con damage (but not the negative energy).

Dark Blessing (Su):- 1st: Add Cha to Fort saves (maximum of Death Knight level).- 3rd: Add Cha to initiative rolls.- 7th: Add Cha to Con-based skill checks and to skill checks for known martial discipline skills.- 13th: Add Cha to critical confirmation rolls.- 20th: Add Cha to hp/level instead of Con (which you don't have any more at this level).

Death's Steed (Su): Upon reaching 5th level, you gain the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve you. Once per day, as a full-round action, you may magically call your mount from the realms in which it resides. The mount immediately appears adjacent to you and remains until dismissed; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. The mount is the same creature each time it is called, though you may release a particular mount from service. Each time the mount is called, it appears in full health, regardless of any damage it may have taken previously. The mount also appears wearing or carrying any gear it had when it was last dismissed. Should your mount die or be destroyed, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying. You may not summon another mount for one week or until you gain a Death Knight level, whichever comes first, even if the mount is somehow raised or revived.

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Death Knight Level

Bonus HD

Str bonus

Int score

Natural Armor

Special

Up to 7th

+2

+0

6

+2

Empathic Link, Evasion, Share Saving Throws, Share Spells

8th-10th

+4

+2

7

+4

Improved Speed

11th-13th

+6

+4

8

+6

--

14th-16th

+8

+4

9

+8

Multiattack

17th-19th

+10

+6

10

+10

Improved Evasion

20th and above

+12

+6

11

+12

--

Int score: Use this value or the mount's normal Int score, whichever is higher.

Valid mounts:

5th (normal level)- Warhorse- Warpony

8th (level -2)- Fiendish Warhorse- Fiendish Warpony

11th (level -4)

14th (level -6)

17th (level -8)- Nightmare

Fear Aura (Su):- 8th: Can emit an aura of fear as a free action 1/round. 15' radius. Creatures w/ HD <= 4 must Will save or be panicked for 1 round/level. 1/day/4 levels, can intensify it to affect opponents of any HD.

- Wasn't there a Death Knight template somewhere? MM2, I think, and a bunch of other places? Might be fun to do a transformative thing here, too. Martial version of a Lich and all that.

- Gain bonuses to natural armor, Str, and Cha.- When you become undead at level 20 and lose your Con score entirely, your nat armor, Str, and Cha will be boosted based on what your Con score was without non-instantaneous bonuses. Nothing for 0-11, but 12+ will start granting (smallish) bonuses. Say, +(Con mod + 2)/3 to nat armor, +(Con mod + 1)*2/3 to Str, +(Con mod)*2/3 to Cha. Or something. We'll see.- Use Cha for various things. Includes Fort saves, HP, Concentration checks, Initiative, crit confirm rolls, etc.- Has a non-evil aligned variant that does the same but with deathless instead of undead.- Maneuvers as Warblade. Recovery may be different. I've heard suggestions for both Crusader-style and recovery by taking damage. I'm still looking for something else, but I might come back to those if nothing catches me.

Note: Compatible with DonQuixote's spellshaping Edgewalker Knight if you focus more on the non-necromantic side of things. More reason to keep the Devoted Spirit discipline.

Skeletal Servant ACF

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Replaces Death's Steed.

Skeletal Servant: Starting at 5th level, you can animate a skeleton out of a valid corpse with an hour-long ritual that costs 100g in incense and onyx. The skeleton serves you indefinitely or until destroyed, following your every command. If you dismiss it, the skeleton is immediately destroyed (and cannot be revived, although the original creature can be raised or resurrected as normal). You can only have one skeletal servant at any given time. Initially, the skeleton can have up to 5 HD. As you gain levels, the skeleton improves, gaining additional racial hit dice and other benefits as noted. As you gain levels, you can choose to animate more powerful creatures as skeletal servants. For every additional HD, your effective Death Knight level is reduced by 1 when determining the benefits your servant receives. If this would reduce your effective level below 1, you cannot animate and keep such a creature as your skeletal servant.

Death Knight Level

Bonus HD

Str/Dex bonus

Int/Cha score

Natural Armor

Special

Up to 3rd

+1

+0/+0

--/1

+0

Necrotic Link, Share Spells

4th-6th

+3

+2/+0

--/4

+0

Evasion

7th-9th

+6

+2/+2

3/7

+1

Feats, Intelligence, Skills

10th-12th

+9

+4/+2

5/10

+2

Multiattack

13th-15th

+12

+4/+4

7/13

+3

Dark Blessing

16th-18th

+15

+6/+4

9/16

+4

Improved Evasion

19th and above

+18

+6/+6

11/19

+5

Improved Dark Blessing

Necrotic Link: As familiar's empathic link. In addition, while the link is in place (within 1 mile), cannot be turned, rebuked, commanded, or destroyed unless the turner/rebuker wins an opposed Charisma check with the servant's master.Share Spells, Evasion, Multiattack, Improved Evasion: As the animal companion versions.Feats: Gains feats as though it had always had an Intelligence score.Intelligence: Gains an Intelligence score. Can speak any one language you know. Can heal naturally.Skills: Gains skill points as though it had always had an Intelligence score.Dark Blessing: Add Cha to hp for each HD.Improved Dark Blessing: Add Cha to all saves, and as deflection to AC.

Note: There will be a feat that turns it from a basic skeleton into one of the fancy new monsters introduced here.

Martial Disciplines

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Frozen Night: The cold and negative energy equivalent of Desert Wind, but more effective and useful.

Skill: Craft- Army of the Dead (strike 7): Conjure an army of skeletons into the area. They serve under your command for a short time or until destroyed.- Bone Barrier (counter 5): Gain a +8 shield bonus to AC against one attack and hardness 5 for 1 round. Hardness improves with your ranks in Craft.- Bone Shield (counter 2): Gain a +4 shield bonus to AC against one attack and DR 2/bludgeoning for 1 round. DR improves with your ranks in Craft.- Bone Wall (counter 8): Gain total cover against one attack and take half damage for 1 round.- Corpsecrafter (stance 1): Animate a 1 HD skeleton or a zombie from a nearby corpse, under your control (as per Animate Dead). Can animate more powerful undead as your ranks in Craft rise. The undead creature remains for as long as your stance does.- Nimble Bones (stance 1): Grants a +2 competence bonus on initiative checks and Reflex saves to allies within 60 feet. Initiative bonus increases to +4 for undead allies.- Rattling Blow (strike 3): Attack deals +4d6 damage. Target is shaken for 1 minute on a failed Will save.- Bonelock (strike 4): Attack deals +4d6 damage and 4 points of Dex damage. A Fort save halves the Dex damage, but not the extra damage dice.- Ribcracker (strike 6): Attack deals +8d6 damage and 4 points of Con damage. A Fort save halves the Con damage, but not the extra damage dice.- Spinebreaker (strike 9): Attack deals +15d6 damage, 2d6 points of Dex damage, causes paralysis for 1 round, and causes daze for 1d4+1 rounds (overlapping). A successful Fort save halves the Dex damage, negates the paralysis, and reduces the duration of the daze to 1 round.- Bone Puppet (strike 5): As the Control Body power for up to 1 round. Can also be used on the dead, in which case no save is allowed and it lasts up to 1 minute (as long as you concentrate).

Undying Call: Discipline based on the spirit and soul. Touch attacks, negative levels, temporary hit points, and some other fun things. Both negative and positive energy based.

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Note: For my convenience, "p/n damage" is shorthand for positive or negative energy damage, whichever damages your target, or neither if neither do. Actually, better just make it amalgam damage, I think. I already have rules for that so I just have to link to it and give it a name.

- Ghost: Alternate special abilities for martially-oriented ghosts. (Will have minor/major categories for use with the template class.) Things like access to Restless Bones and Undying Call maneuvers, a challenging gaze that forces enemies to either engage in melee combat or run away in fear.- Zombie Warrior: They like brawn over brains. Nom nom nom. Has a few maneuvers from Iron Heart, Restless Bones, and Stone Dragon. Can use standard action strikes at the end of partial charges, or use boosts and counters if they don't move.- Returned: Vengeful warriors slain in dishonorable combat.- Variant golems (mostly based on flesh golems), made from warrior parts.-

Feats

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- A feat to let your Death Knight Skeletal Companion (which is an ACF now) be a Returned or Zombie Warrior or something instead.- A feat in the Corpsecrafter line to animate Zombie Warriors.- A "reprinting" of Thriller Animator.- A feat to empower your martial strikes with positive (or negative) energy.- A feat to channel touch attacks through martial strikes.-

PrCs

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- An anti-undead marital adept. Because all undead books need an anti-undead class.- Rally the (zombie) horde! A leader of the masses (of flesh), who teaches them to fight (and bite) for their homes (and brains).

This sounds hilarious and fun. I want to subscribe to your newsletter.

Oh god I would want to play this so much... bonus points if it uses the Crusaders recovery mechanism. (I could also see one along the lines of refreshing whenever anything dies but that has issues against boss type encounters)

How about a recovery mechanism based on taking damage? Basically deal damage to self to recover a maneuver based on the maneuver's level... and then a feat to allow others to take the damage for you, but has to be willing. Then you can perform neg energy maneuvers on yourself to heal.

I have Diablo 3 on my mind (mostly because I've been playing it a lot lately. Could the various classes' abilities be made into martial disciplines? Many of the ability names and rune names are fitting as maneuver names and sufficiently coherent to hit as part of the same martial discipline.

You can probably guess which class I play the most. Hoping to do Monk later, followed by Barbarian. I think Wizard and Witch Doctor are too magical for my tastes, and cover too broad themes for just one discipline anyways.

Pursuing Hatred (Demon Hunter)

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Skill: Tumble

Hungering Arrow (strike): Ranged attack deals +2d6 damage, +4 on attack roll.Puncturing Arrow (strike): Ranged attack deals +4d6 damage, doubled critical threat range. The attack then pierces through the target and seeks out another enemy, allowing a second attack with the same projectile.Devouring Arrow (strike): Ranged attack deals +10d6 damage, is resolved as a ranged touch attack.Action Shot (strike): Make a ranged full attack while moving up to your speed. Neither the movement nor the ranged attacks provoke AoOs.Rain of Arrows (strike): Volley of projectiles deals ranged attack damage +12d6 to all enemies in a burst, Reflex half.Elemental Arrow (strike): Ranged attack deals +6d6 damage. All damage dealt by the attack is fire, cold, or electricity (your choice).Screaming Skull (strike): Deal ranged attack damage +2d6 to all enemies in a line and cause them to be shaken for 1 minute. Reflex half, Will negates the fear.Smoke Screen (counter): Gain total concealment against a single attack.Lingering Fog (counter): Gain total concealment for 1 round.Shadow Power (stance): Ranged attacks deal +1d4 negative energy damage, you gain temporary hp equal to the bonus damage dealt for 1 round.Gloom (stance): Gain concealment against all attacks and a +2 bonus on Reflex saves.Evasive Fire (stance): Ranged attacks don't provoke attacks of opportunity. Take a free 5 foot step whenever you make a ranged attack while threated in melee by an enemy.Perfectionist (stance): Roll ranged attack rolls and miss chances twice and take the better result.Tactical Advantage (boost): Gain a move action.Preparation (boost): Recover up to two expended maneuvers. Preparation cannot be recovered until they are expended.Battle Scars (boost): Make another saving throw against an effect affecting you, reducing its effect as though you had succeeded initially if you are successful.Hot Pursuit (boost): Movement speed increases by 30 feet for 1 round.

I'm interested in the concept of healing surges. It's a nice idea, to free hit point recovery from the shackles of magic and seems to promote a more heroic play style (instead of taking days of bed rest or chewing on the CLW stick). 4E did and gave it the name (subsequently back-ported to 3.5 here, although I have a few problems with Azernak0's implementation), and 3.5 itself was no slouch and tried something similar with UA's reserve points. Here's my shot at it.

Healing Surges and Second Winds

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Taking a second wind immediately heals you for an amount of hit points equal to one quarter your maximum hit points (rounded up), or your character level plus your Constitution bonus (if positive), whichever is greater. Like magical healing, this also removes a like amount of nonlethal damage. In addition, you heal 1 point of ability damage to each of your ability scores. Taking a second wind is a standard action and costs 1 healing surge. You can spend more than one healing surge if you wish, and some effects grant additional effects based on the number of surges you spend. Effects that control or influence your actions (such as charm and compulsion effects) can never force you to take a second wind if you are unwilling, however.

You can have a maximum number of healing surges at any one time equal to your Base Fort Save plus your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). Each negative level you suffer also reduces your maximum surges by 1 (maximum surges cannot be reduced below 1). Any excess healing surges beyond your reduced maximum are lost, and must be recovered normally (lost surges are not regained when your maximum healing surges increases once more).

Although you cannot spend healing surges you do not have, effects that reduce your remaining healing surges can reduce them below 0. If your remaining healing surges are less than 0, you are fatigued. If your remaining healing surges are less than the negative of your maximum healing surges, you are instead exhausted. This fatigue or exhaustion cannot be removed until your healing surges increase again, although immunity still allows you to ignore these conditions.

Instead of regaining a number of hit points equal to your character level and healing 1 point of ability damage to each ability score for 8 hours (or more) of rest, you instead regain 1 healing surge. Each additional multiple of your character level in hit points that you would normally recover (such as from extended rest or being tended to with the Heal skill) instead grants you an additional healing surge. Essentially, those are shifted into the healing surges/second winds instead of being a result of rest in the normal rules. Nonlethal damage still recovers as normal (1 hp/level/hour).

While you are at negative hit points or have more nonlethal damage than your current hit points, you can take a second wind once per round on your turn without spending an action, even if you are unconscious or unable to act. When you take a second wind this way, it will never provide more healing than is necessary to restore you to 1 hit point, nor will it remove more nonlethal damage than is necessary for your nonlethal damage to equal your hit point total. A second wind taken normally while at negative hit points functions normally.

Healing Surge Feats

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Rapid Recovery [Surge]Prerequisites: Base Fort Save +3Benefit: You can take a second wind as one action type faster. A standard action becomes a move action, a move action becomes a swift action, a swift action becomes an immediate action, and an immediate action becomes a free action.Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time, the action required to take a second wind is reduced by one step.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Resurgence [Surge]Benefit: Whenever you take a second wind, you can choose any number of effects affecting you against which you failed your saving throw, to a maximum of the number of healing surges spent. You can make a new saving throw against each of them, against the original save DC. On a success, the effect's effects are reduced as though you had originally succeeded on your saving throw.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Raging Recovery [Rage, Surge]Prerequisites: Con 13, ability to enter a rage, frenzy, or similar stateBenefit: You can take a second wind as part of entering a rage, frenzy, or similar state.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Life Burn [Surge]Prerequisites: Caster level 5thBenefit: Whenever you cast a spell, you can spend a healing surge to increase your caster level by 2 and the spell's save DC by 1.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Resolute Recovery [Surge]Benefit: Whenever you take a second wind, you gain a +2 bonus on all attack rolls, to your AC, and on all saving throws for a number of rounds equal to the healing surges spent. Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Back In Action [Surge]Benefit: Whenever you take a second wind, you can stand up from prone as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity, and you can remove or reduce any number of the following conditions from yourself: fatigued, exhausted (becomes fatigued), sickened, nauseated (becomes sickened), shaken, frightened (becomes shaken), panicked (becomes shaken), staggered, dazed, stunned (becomes staggered). If a continuous source of those conditions still affects you (such as having nonlethal damage exactly equal to your current hit points or having a negative number of healing surges, but not an ongoing spell or effect), the condition is still removed or reduced for a number of rounds equal to the healing surges spent.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Extra Surge [Surge]Benefit: Your maximum number of healing surges is increased by 2.Special: You can select this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Surge of Power [Psionic, Surge]Prerequisites: Con 13, Wis 13, Concentration 8 ranksBenefit: You may spend a healing surge in place of expending your psionic focus. This does not allow you to expend more psionic focuses than you normally possess as part of a single action.Special: This feat counts as the Psionic Meditation feat for the purpose of meeting prerequisites and other options.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Restoring Surge [Surge]Prerequisites: Base Fort Save +5Benefit: Whenever you take a second wind, choose one of your ability scores. You heal all ability damage taken to that score and also remove 1 point of ability drain to that score. Further, you can make a saving throw against a number of negative levels affecting you, up to the number of healing surges spent. Success immediately removes that negative level (as though 24 hours had passed), although failure carries no consequence (you are not at risk of permanent level loss).Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Enhanced Recovery [Surge]Prerequisites: Base Fort Save +3Benefit: Whenever you take a second wind, you heal an additional number of hit points equal to your character level multiplied by the number of healing surges spent.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Extraordinary Healing [Surge]Prerequisites: Base Fort Save +6, any 2 other Surge featsBenefit: You gain an additional healing surge every day, regardless of the amount of rest you get.Special: A Fighter can select this feat as a Fighter bonus feat.

Flaws and Traits

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Fragile (flaw): Your body doesn't recover as easily from injury. Your maximum healing surges are reduced by 3 (minimum 1), and taking a second wind is a full-round action for you instead of a standard action (the Rapid Recovery feat and similar effects reduce this to a standard action). In addition, you cannot take an action-less second wind while at negative hit points if you are dying (you must become stable first).

Skills

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Heal (stabilize): By increasing the DC of the Heal check made to stabilize a dying creature by 5, you can also allow that creature to take a second wind without spending an action (assuming it has enough healing surges remaining).Heal (first aid): As a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, you can attempt a DC 20 Heal check to allow an adjacent creature to take a second wind without spending an action (assuming it has enough healing surges remaining).Heal (surgery): By spending 10 minutes tending to a creature, you can make a DC 25 Heal check to allow that creature to take a second wind without spending an action, even if it doesn't have enough healing surges remaining. On a failure, the subject loses one healing surge. If the subject does not have any healing surges left, the DC of this check is increased by twice the subject's negative total of healing surges. If the surgery is interrupted (regardless of success or failure), the subject loses a healing surge and also takes 1 point of damage.

Wild Shape (and similar abilities) (Druid and others)Instead of healing you as if you had 8 hours of rest, this ability instead allows you to take a second wind as part of wild shaping.

Channel Vitality (Cleric ACF)

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Loses: Turn/Rebuke UndeadGains: Channel Vitality

Channel Vitality (Su): A number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), you can channel positive or negative energy (depending on which you channel) in a 30' radius burst around you as a standard action. If you channel positive energy, creatures in the area that are healed by positive energy can take a second wind as an immediate action, and creatures in the area that are harmed by positive energy must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your effective turning level + your Charisma modifier) or lose a healing surge. If you channel negative energy, instead creatures healed by negative energy can take a second wind and creatures harmed by negative energy are at risk of losing a healing surge. You are never affected by your own Channel Vitality, for good or for ill. Channel Vitality counts as the ability to turn or rebuke undead for the purpose of feats, prerequisites, and other options.

In the end, what does this all mean?

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Well, in the short term, it means that characters have a fair bit more stamina over the course of the day, or at least don't have to spend 750g on a wand of CLW or Lesser Vigor. You should have enough healing surges to keep you going throughout one or two adventuring days, even at low levels (even first level characters will generally have between 2 and 6 healing surges, and are generally healing a greater proportion of their hit points due to rounding and the more favorable CL + Con formula). A character who goes down early in the fight (without dying, of course), will generally have most of his healing surges left, so he can be brought back easily with a DC 20 Heal check (not gravely wounded, just knocked out). Meanwhile, later on after multiple battles, that same hit point loss is a lot more serious, possibly requiring major surgery for the character to be brought back without magic or lots of bed rest.

That's the other thing. Healing surges replenish at a relatively slow rate, even though you can store up a fair number of them. With someone who has invested ranks in Heal around (finally, the skill has a use, and a reasonably good one), you're still only getting back 2 healing surges per character per day when you're off adventuring (and only get 8 hours of rest). For short adventures, characters will be full of vim and vigor, coming back easily even after hard fights. After a while, the battles will begin to take their toll, and characters won't bounce back quite as easily as their healing surges deplete faster than they are replenished.

Finally, surge feats bring a new resource mechanic to bear. Mundane characters can get some useful abilities, and even spellcasters can get in on the action (although generally not as well, since most spellcasters have poor Fort saves... Clerics/Druids excepted).

This variant would also work better if death comes a little further than -10. Dying at -10 or -1/4 your max HP (whichever is better) would give some opportunity to actually use those second wind while unconscious rules. Going all the way down to -1/2 max HP, or even full -max HP would do so even more, while also reinforcing the idea that running out of hit points doesn't mean you're on the brink of death, but running out of healing surges does. Any character with 4 or more healing surges (most adventurers at least by level 6, since who takes a Con score less than 14?) has as many or more hit points stored up in healing surges as in actual hit points.

Okay, I think I'm actually done with healing surges for now. Maybe a few more feats and ACFs if I think about it. I could set up the further variant where even healing spells are based on healing surges, but everyone else seems to have done that and I don't feel like it. Besides, with the limited surge recovery in my system, magical healing is still actually needed for prolonged adventures with little rest time, and I do actually like the idea of magical healing being this sort of semi-unlimited font of hit points (I just don't want it to be the only practical source of hit points).

Additions to http://dndtools.eu/feats/monster-manual-v--78/]awesome-blow--157/An Awesome Blow counts as a Bull Rush even though you do not use the standard initiation of moving into an opponent's square or making an opposed Strength check. Because it is not an opposed Strength check, Improved Bull Rush's effects do not apply. A creature with Powerful Build is treated as one size category larger than it actually is for purposes of qualifying for and using this feat.

When using an Awesome Blow, you may throw the defender an additional 5 feet for every 5 points by which your attack result is greater than the defender's AC. If an obstacle prevents the completion of the defender's move both the defender and the obstacle take 1d6 (2d6 maybe?) points of damage for every 5 feet the defender would have moved if the obstacle had not prevented the move's completion. A confirmed critical increases the distance the defender is thrown as shown on the table, and the defender and obstacle take increased damage as such. If the damage done to the obstacle is enough to destroy it, the defender continues moving through it but the distance thrown is reduced by 5 feet. In addition, the creature can make an Awesome Blow at the end of a charge and making an Awesome Blow no longer imposes a -4 penalty to the attack roll.

Table for crit modifiers: (subject to adjustment, but you get the idea)x2: 10 feetx3: 20 feetx4: 30 feet

Special: A fighter can select Incredible Blow as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Lots of text, but I would hope it's an awesome ability even if it's a bit of a pain to get it all right. The reason I added extras for the distance and damage is so the feat scales, unlike many others. TL:DR on it is the creature is such a badass it can fling its opponent not only into, but through obstacles and do some pretty decent damage. The note about Awesome Blow counting as a Bull Rush is mostly for Dungeoncrasher and Combat Brute. I'll make a build based on this later. I might have to add something about not being able to do Touch attacks with this, but Rule of Cool says otherwise.

Mounted Skirmisher:You are adept at making deadly strikes while mounted.

Prereq: Mounted Combat, Ride 5 ranks, Skirmish (+1d6, +1 AC)

Benefits: Your training with steeds enables you to coax more out of them. Any mount you ride gains your AC bonus from Skirmish (but not the extra damage). Your mount also gains the enhancement bonus to speed that you do from your scout levels. Finally, you may benefit from your Skirmish ability while mounted by using your mount's movement in place of your own, which may enable you to make a full attack.

Special: A scout can select Mounted Skirmisher as one of her scout bonus feats (Complete Adventurer 13).

Additional notes on Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery, Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge and Trample: A scout can select any of these feats as one of her scout bonus feats.

Off topic but... thematically Skirmish is a stupid ability, anyway. How does moving around let you stab someone in a vital area more easily? Much less if you do so from horseback? Sneak Attack at least makes sense, although of course it can be more difficult to pull off on a ranged attack. So mechanically I understand why Skirmish is popular, but thematically? WTF...

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I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra. Stay frosty my friends.

Skirmish is supposed to be you hitting them with extra force due to your momentum, or something along those lines.

Then why is it precision-based damage? It should be like Power Attack, a flat additive, and not precision-based. So it would be multiplied in crits, etc.

I think of it more like going by a chain link fence. Standing still it is definitely there and can obscure things, but start moving and the chains essentially aren't there. To turn this into combat terms, it's possible to train oneself to take advantage of the extra perception moving can offer to spot a weak point that might not otherwise be noticed. That's why it's precision damage. Such training can also result in perceiving threats and reacting to them better, hence the AC bonus.

3 levelsBAB: 3/4HD: d6Proficiencies: All simple weapons, light armor.Saves: Poor Fort, Good Ref, Poor WillSkill Points: 6 + IntClass skills: Appraise, Climb, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Search, and SpotFeatures:Greater Emulation: At first level, choose a race from your general ancestry (human, halfling, dwarf, elf, gnome, goblin, or orc) or a mixed race such as half-elf or half-orc. You may count as that race for the purposes of qualifying for and using one class (standard or prestige), one alternate class feature, and one feat. You may use this feature to qualify for and take a feat at the level you gain this class feature. (Shouldn't really need to note that, but it might prove a useful reminder.) At third level, you may choose another race to emulate with this ability, or the same one as before. If you choose the same race, you may count as that race for another Special: You must have lived in a community where a large minority (greater than 15%) of the population is the chosen race, and you must learn that race's associated racial language before gaining this class feature. To maintain this class feature you need to come into peaceful contact with a member of that race at least once a month.

Bonus Feat: At second level, a mongrelfolk paragon gains a bonus feat. Due to the his varied ancestry and talents, this feat can be any the mongrelfolk has the prerequisites for.

I'm kinda iffy on it, but the flavor is nice. It might require lowering the racial bonuses for certain things not related to the race(s) chosen for Greater Emulation, since the mongrelfolk is closer to those than others and thus loses some benefits regarding other races.